In today’s Oregonian, Steve Duin shared Veteran Mark Gunderson’s story about his struggles on the street in the cold. Mark has a voucher to help pay rent, but has yet to find an apartment.

The Veterans Administration, together with HUD, provides vouchers for veterans to help pay rent, but many veterans have a difficult time finding an affordable home, or cannot pay move-in costs.

With our community partners, including Home Forward, Multnomah County, and United Way, we offer additional funds to help veterans move in to a new home, pay deposits and other fees, and even create incentives for landlords who rent to veterans.

Voucher Holders have 120 days to find a place to call home before their voucher gets put back in the general pool. Unfortunately, too many of our veterans - like Mark - struggle to find a home.

Mark’s story is a call to arms to work together and find landlords who are willing to rent to homeless veterans.

We ask landlords in our community to join with us, and open your doors to our veterans. Home Forward has created this fact sheet about how you can help.

For more information on the program, and to open your rental home to a veteran, email Home Forward at landlordservices@homeforward.org, or call 503-802-8333, Option 6.